Dacre Street, Victoria

Sensitive design to maximize development value whilst retaining the existing building character

Haines Phillips Architects were appointed in 2014 to carry out feasibility proposals for development of the existing mixed use commercial building.

The existing building frontage, whilst not listed, formed a positive part of the Edwardian Style grain of the local conservation area and thus our proposal for development of the site incorporated the retention of this front façade, with a new building frame and rear extensions behind.

The form and fenestration of the new building behind the retained façade was carefully designed to respect the character of the existing streetscape and to minimize any impact on privacy, daylight and sunlight of the adjoining buildings.

Planning consent was obtained for the residential development in 2016 and for change of use of the ground floor commercial spaces to a retail unit in 2019.

Flexible street level commercial space with residential units above

The proposed building use is a mixed development of a single retail space at ground floor street level with four new dwellings on the upper floors, two apartments and two maisonettes. Each new residential unit is double aspect and fully accessible via the central lift and stair core.

With the need to retain the front façade the site was very restricted and for these reasons a steel frame construction was selected.

We followed the project on site through to completion in 2024 on a full architectural services basis.